[11947] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
IDT
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Mike Bauer)
Tue Apr 26 03:23:00 1994
Date: Mon, 25 Apr 94 23:26:48 EDT
From: bauer@tig.com (Mike Bauer)
To: com-priv@psi.com
Just got off the phone yesterday with a salesperson from IDT, International
Discount Telecommunications. This is a partner of the International
Internet Association. They faxed a copy of their offer of "free email
service and free unlimited access to the Internet" to a company I
consult for. Apparently, you can get this "free service" and "free
access" if you do two things:
1. Get at least one phone line switched over to their long-distance
service (anywhere in the country for under 15 cents per minute).
2. Get one of their Internet accounts (for which you get to call a free
800 number for, but are then charged 13.5 cents per minute while
you're on the machine!)
I think you get a shell account (user@iia.com?) and about 1 MEG for
starters. No mention on what additional MEGS cost. Remember, the
advertisement said free "ACCESS." Sure, the phone call's free. It's
not exactly what people traditionally think of as "free access" in my
opinion, but who am I to comment on this?
